-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: August 20, 2007 9:32:49 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: Want to See Change in the Country? Don't Vote!
The army teaches a valuable survival lesson. When you are
captured, the best time to escape is as soon as you can, because it
only gets harder as you go on. This presupposes something so
obvious that it can be overlooked -- that you know you're a
captive! Applying this to circumstances being discussed, our
biggest obstacle may be that we do not fully realize that voting is
futile.
Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL.com.
From: "Jim S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: August 20, 2007 9:34:05 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Want to See Change in the Country? Dont Vote!
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18219.htm
*Want to See Change in the Country? Dont Vote!*
By James Rothenberg
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
08/20/07
"ICH" -- Well, it looks like the 2008 election campaign is in full
swing, or is
it? Does anyone know who the Greens are running? Or the
Socialists? Or the
Progressives or Populists or Workers World? Nah, I guess we don't
need them to
get started. They can fill in the chorus parts at the end of the
play. All we
need is Big Politics. Come and get it. One party for the price of
two!
Democrats and Republicans alike beseech us to get out there and
vote, and why
not? Besides making these self-anointed guardians of democracy
seem open and
civic-minded, there is the reassuring prospect that each will get
their standard
split (results will not vary greatly from 50/50). The virtual
monopoly control
of election enjoyed by these two parties make them confident they
will not have
to face serious challenges from minor party candidates.
We are counseled that every vote matters, even a single one. While
this may be
true on the Supreme Court, a school board, or even a village
election, as the
vote count grows larger the odds alone make it progressively more
unlikely that a
single vote could be decisive.
The pivotal Florida count in the 2000 presidential election may
seem to support
one-vote-matters theory. Out of 5,861,785 votes cast in the State
a mere 537
vote margin decided the whole shebang (via the Supreme Court).
Okay, so 537 is
not 1 but it's tantalizingly close considering the total number of
votes. Didnt
this prove that a single vote could, in principle, make the
difference?
Forget it! It's not a matter of odds. It's a matter of
appearance. In an
election of sufficient size and importance, a single vote will
never be decisive.
That is the Florida lesson. Remembering Florida, think what would
happen if the
difference was a single vote, which, taking the Florida figures,
works out to a
margin of .000017 percent. Since this is hideously less than the
margin of error
in the count it would never be allowed to stand. It would be
challenged and
re-challenged until the margin raised high enough to quell some of the
surrounding noise. All of which means one thing. Your vote will
never matter!
Both parties see it as a bad sign when voters stay away from the
polls. It
signifies that people may have stopped paying attention. Democrats
and
Republicans each struggle to maintain the illusion that they are
uniquely suited
to guide the country -- that they alone deserve to lead by dint of
tradition.
The absurdity is compounded each election cycle by these stalwart
defenders of
the status quo each promising to bring about the next great change,
exploiting
the public's thirst for it.
While we are encouraged to vote for change, in our system it works
the opposite
way. At the present stage, the entrenched power of Big Politics is
such as to
render any rival upstart stillborn. It wont happen at the
ballot box, not in
the expected sense. Voting is their game and you cant beat
someone at their own
game.
When 100 million people vote each major party will get between 40
and 60 million
each, leaving mavericks the crumbs and millions of votes to
overcome. Since
mavericks are the only people who represent true change (supply
your own proof),
what we get is reluctance to change.
If only 1 million people vote each major party will have ulcers at
the prospect
of their vulnerability to the maverick. The fewer people who vote,
the fewer
needed to upset the power balance. Is this a partial explanation
of why the
establishment frets about low voter turnout?
So the message is if you really want to see things shaken up, stay
away from the
polls. This will take some discipline considering how it counters
the prevailing
advice. Your vote may be personal to you, but to those in control
it is a
commodity. It is bought and paid for in accordance with a formula
(dollar/vote
correspondence) well known to those in the field (applied
electioneering), only
youre not supposed to know this, even though you really know this.
You may feel that you vote freely, but ask yourself why you don't
feel free to
vote for a minor party candidate. Ask yourself why you dont
want to "waste"
your vote, yet instead reward with it the very parties responsible
for this state
of futility.
The army teaches a valuable survival lesson. When you are
captured, the best
time to escape is as soon as you can, because it gets harder as you
go on. This
presupposes something so obvious that it can be overlooked. That
you know you
are captive! Applying this to discussed circumstances, our primary
obstacle may
be that we do not fully recognize that all is futile.
---- Msg sent via CWNet - http://www.cwnet.com/
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